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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I finished painting the bridges. I've painted the bridges with the same painting technique as the hill panels, described in Modular Gaming Table: Part 12. This enforces the idea that the bridges are made of the same rock materials.

Below some pictures of the various dry-brush stages:

Base painted with Scorched Brown

Dry brushed with Shadow Grey

Dry brushed with Space Wolves Grey

Dry brushed with Fortress Grey

I did an extra dry-brush with "Off White", added various layers of watered down Vallejo washes of "Sepia Wash", "Umber Shade", "Fleshtone Shade", "Green Shade", gave it a satin varnish and finished it with a "Testors Dull Coat" varnish.

I'm planning to add some foliage to the bridge in a later stage. I'm in a bit of a hurry, because I needed to finish the bridges for our upcomming battle report "The Bridge over the River Chai".

Friday, October 5, 2012

After finishing the table I realised I needed bridges in order to cross the river sections. I didn't want to design and create them from scatch, but I also didn't want to buy pre-made scenery. Looking around on the internet I found the perfect source for my solution, Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture Inc.

The website offers a great range of molds to create buildings of any shape and size.Without wasting time I quickly ordered, mold #74: Fieldstone Bridge.

When it arrived a week later I immediately set out to cast the materials needed for two large fieldstone bridges. The Hirst Arts website contains everything you need to know about this.

Below you can see the casting progress.

Close-up mold #74

Close-up mold #74 with plaster

Materials for one bridge

Glued and assembled

Sealed with Epoxy

I'm not sure whether sealing the plaster with Epoxy is proven practise, but it seems to work very well. The plaster is very fragile when left untouched. The Epoxy protects the fragile plaster, tightens the bonds between the various parts and the Epoxy is absorbed by the plaster without obscuring any details. So far, I haven't noticed any side effects.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Before we start with the demonstration, I would like to show a modification I made to the table. The first post of the series, shows a method for stabilizing the legs with side bars. See picture below:

The above method has shortcomings. Not all of the bars are interchangeable, they're difficult to attach/detach and sometimes they simply fall out. This is why I replaced them with aluminium bars. Both ends of the aluminium bars have a canoe-clip attached to it. This allows them to be clicked in place, instead of hooked. This creates a solid connection with the table and offers a much sturdier solution.

A canoe-clip

Frame (large) and leg (small) connection bar

Inside and outside side bars

The connection bars for the legs have been shortened, otherwise they would interact with the canoe-clips. The shortened connection bars can only be used for the storage setup, but not for connecting frames. This poses no problem, because not all of the connection bars are used in a complete table setup.

Frame with shortened connection bar

Frame with leg

Leg with side bars for extra support and stability

Now, let's get on with the demonstration... What does the table look like when stored?

Two sets of 6 frames and panels in storage mode

Some might have noticed a slight difference between the backdrops above and the ones I've posted my previous post. I actually made them 5 cm shorter, because the photo was too high. I should have tried it out first on some piece of paper before plotting it.

I started out with the BIG one, using four legs in each corner and four legs in the middle. During the setup I noticed that the four legs in the middle disrupted the slight downcurve of the table. This caused the panels to not align properly. Removing the extra four legs in middle solved the problem. Although I could have used the extra legs on the sides, the table seemed to hold out well with only four legs in each corner.

Below you can see the configuration setup I've used and some pictures.

Config 4x3 x13:y13

All the panels without scenery

All the panels with scenery and some miniatures

Photo shoot at the river

Photo shoot at the hill

I really like the 3x2 setup. This is the setup I'm going to use most frequently. It requires one set of 6 panels and frames and can easily be taken along with you.

Config 3x2 x10:y35

Without scenery

With scenery

You think orcs can swim?

Just look at it. Ain't it a sight to see?

Well, this concludes it, the last post of the "Modular Gaming Table" series. It took me about one year to finish, and I'm glad and relieved I finally did. I didn't take count of the actual time I've put into the project. Probably way too much, of which most was spent in research and figuring out how to go on.

Doing large projects like these can be straining, especially when you're married with children. Planning everything upfront, keeping a tight schedule and dividing all the required tasks in units of one hour, allowed me to use the available time as efficiently as possible, keep myself motivated and most importantly letting the wife know of the progress.

I don't like to admit it, but I made mistakes, even despite all of my careful planning. Luckily for me, nothing so severe that couldn't be fixed. I guess it's the human factor we all have to live with. In the end I'm very happy with the results.

Finally, I would like to thank all my followers for their support and the kind comments they've left on the blog.

Whether orcs can swim or not, having made river panels I now realise units propably won't be able to cross without some properly made bridges. You've guessed it, I'll be making two bridges for my next project, so stay tuned...

Oh yeah, you might be seeing some more pictures of the table in a new battle report I'm planning with Gaj from over at the Warhammer for Adults blog. Progress on this will be posted on Gaj's blog.